I have a friend who recently came into possession of one of these tubas, dated to 1913. The horn is in incredible condition for the age, and it is the finest 4/4 BBb piston tuba I've ever played. Prototypical "American" bass sound, with tons of color that is very malleable.

I recently bought a top-action Monster. It's currently getting its valves replated, leadpipe rolled out, and bottom bow braces cleaned up. I'll report back with photos when it's ready! I'm hoping the work will be done in a couple more weeks. Here's a photo from when Frank owned it: http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff29 ... p5td8z.jpg" target="_blank I think it'll be a great compliment to my Conn 40k. If it's as good as I'm hoping it'll be, I'll probably sell my 5-valve Rudolf Meinl 3/4 CC.

Last edited by jbaylies on Sun May 07, 2017 12:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

Got to love old Conn's. Those old designers and craftsmen really knew what they were doing. I've never seen this model in person but I've played various other ones and they never disappoint. I'll take one in "finish 1" with the triple silver plated sand blasted finish with 4 top action valves and a 21" bell for $157.50.

The top action "Monster" healthy-4/4 size BBb Conns with large bell flare has some serious style.For a replica, just get the tuning slide out of the leadpipe and have a manipulative 1st valve slide much like 3rd on a King 2280. Set the leadpipe at a bit of an angle and don't put the valves too high, and top action is ergonomically fine.

Another cool-looking Conn model that could make a nice basis for replicas is the "Professional" medium Eb in front action. It's pretty similar to the 4J or 5J in outer body size and bell shape depending on year, but Eb guts. It would be sized under the typical compensator size in bore/early branch and bell throat, but just about like it in outer branch size.

I got the top-action monster back a couple days ago. It plays well aside from the F below the staff and a few notes around it feeling a bit stuffy. Also, I initially noticed a buzz arising when I played Eb or E in the staff, and later realized it was coming from the third valve's tubing being a paper's width apart at one point. Putting one piece of paper in there got rid of the buzz completely, so I'm going to have that soldered. If anyone has some insight into the stuffiness, let me know... The whole tuba is quite flat, too, so I think I'm going to have a centimeter cut off the tuning slide. I'll post a recording once the work is done.

edit: I've been realizing that the tuning improves a lot once the horn is warmed up. Possibly moreso than any other tuba I've played. I did some searching and found a post by Bloke that adds credence to this. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=42394

Last edited by jbaylies on Fri May 12, 2017 3:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.

jbaylies wrote:It plays well aside from the F below the staff and a few notes around it feeling a bit stuffy. Also, I initially noticed a buzz arising when I played Eb or E in the staff, and later realized it was coming from the third valve's tubing being a paper's width apart at one point. Putting one piece of paper in there got rid of the buzz completely, so I'm going to have that soldered. If anyone has some insight into the stuffiness,

Such leaks can be a source of stuffiness. When your tech goes to solder that spot, it might be good to go looking for some others.

jbaylies wrote:edit: I've been realizing that the tuning improves a lot once the horn is warmed up. Possibly moreso than any other tuba I've played. I did some searching and found a post by Bloke that adds credence to this. http://forums.chisham.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=42394

The Conn Orchestra Grand Bass in the avatar of "lost" on this board is like that. I owned it for a while around 2010/11. You play it 20 minutes or so and suddenly there is a moment when everything lines up noticeably better and you aren't fighting for intonation. I sold it to a student of "the elephant." When that student went to sell it, his teacher posted it here on his behalf, and said the same thing in the FS post, which I found satisfying, since he is obviously a far better player than me, and that showed it was not just that I finally figured it out after 20 minutes.